Tel Aviv/Gaza City, May 18, (dpa/GNA) - Thousands of nationalist Israelis marched through Jerusalem on Thursday with Israeli flags under massive police protection, celebrating the Israeli conquest of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The controversial march was also scheduled to pass through the Muslim quarter of the Old City in the evening, which Palestinians see as an extreme provocation. According to the news website Haaretz, around 20,000 people attended the rally.
Among the participants were Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The march takes place annually on Jerusalem Day.
Palestinians want the Arab-majority eastern part of Jerusalem as the future capital of their own state.
Ahead of the march, some 3,200 security personnel had been put on alert for fear of confrontations, according to police. In the Old City, there were reportedly sporadic violent clashes between Jewish nationalists and Palestinian residents.
According to Haaretz, several groups of Jewish participants chanted slogans such as “Death to Arabs” or “May your village burn.”
Earlier in the day, several hundred Jews had visited the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount religious site in Jerusalem, including a member of the government and several members of parliament. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned the visit as “provocative and unacceptable.”
The Noble Sanctuary, or al-Haram al-Sharif in Arabic, is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. To the Jews, it is known as the Temple Mount, where both of Judaism’s ancient temples once stood. Jews are allowed to visit the site, but not to pray there.
About two years ago, the flag march was cancelled because of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which rules Gaza, warned before the march that the “red line” in Jerusalem should not be crossed.
In Gaza, hundreds gathered at the border with Israel in protest. They waved Palestinian flags and set tyres on fire. Israeli soldiers reportedly fired tear gas at the demonstrators.
It was only on Saturday that five days of violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the coastal strip ended after a ceasefire.
GNA